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Organizational Life Cycle Assessment of a Service Providing SME for Renewable Energy Projects (PV and Wind) in the United Kingdom

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  • Hendrik Marx

    (Department of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17, Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany)

  • Silvia Forin

    (Department of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17, Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany)

  • Matthias Finkbeiner

    (Department of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17, Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

Companies are increasingly interested in reducing their environmental footprint. Thereby, they face the challenge of identifying and mitigating their specific impacts and hotspots and simultaneously avoid burden shifting. The organizational life cycle assessment (OLCA) method was conceived and successfully tested for the assessment if companies’ potential environmental impacts. Still, the method poses methodological challenges for the application to service providing organizations. In this paper, OLCA was applied to a service providing SME in the photovoltaic and wind energy business in the United Kingdom. The environmental impact profile of the reporting organization is dominated by transport activities, including the technicians’ trips to the solar farms, employee commuting, and business travels. According to the main goals of the study (gaining insights in internal operations and improving organizational procedures), recommendations to reduce travel-related impacts are provided. For existing methodological challenges like selecting the reporting flow and setting the system boundaries, innovative solutions like defining multiple reporting flows for different activities and to partly include service receiving objects in system boundaries are discussed with the aim to facilitate future applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Hendrik Marx & Silvia Forin & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2020. "Organizational Life Cycle Assessment of a Service Providing SME for Renewable Energy Projects (PV and Wind) in the United Kingdom," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4475-:d:365828
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mariarosa Argentiero & Pasquale Marcello Falcone, 2020. "The Role of Earth Observation Satellites in Maximizing Renewable Energy Production: Case Studies Analysis for Renewable Power Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Pasquale Marcello Falcone & Sara González García & Enrica Imbert & Lucía Lijó & María Teresa Moreira & Almona Tani & Valentina Elena Tartiu & Piergiuseppe Morone, 2019. "Transitioning towards the bio‐economy: Assessing the social dimension through a stakeholder lens," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(5), pages 1135-1153, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wafaurahman Wafa & Amir Hamzah Sharaai & Nitanan Koshy Matthew & Sabrina Abdullah J Ho & Noor Ahmad Akhundzada, 2022. "Organizational Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (OLCSA) for a Higher Education Institution as an Organization: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-29, February.
    2. Tamíris Pacheco da Costa & James Gillespie & Katarzyna Pelc & Natalie Shenker & Gillian Weaver & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan & Fionnuala Murphy, 2023. "An Organisational-Life Cycle Assessment Approach for Internet of Things Technologies Implementation in a Human Milk Bank," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, January.
    3. Alberto Bezama & Nora Mittelstädt & Daniela Thrän & Fritz Balkau, 2021. "Trends and Challenges in Regional Life Cycle Management: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Enas Taha Sayed & Hussain Alawadhi & Khaled Elsaid & A. G. Olabi & Maryam Adel Almakrani & Shaikha Tamim Bin Tamim & Ghada H. M. Alafranji & Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem, 2020. "A Carbon-Cloth Anode Electroplated with Iron Nanostructure for Microbial Fuel Cell Operated with Real Wastewater," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-11, August.
    5. Hinrika Droege & Andrea Raggi & Tomás B. Ramos, 2021. "Co‐development of a framework for circular economy assessment in organisations: Learnings from the public sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1715-1729, November.

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